Do pubs have a duty of care for children?

[KoalafiedAwesome]

We have a pub near us that we haven’t been for a while due to repeated incidents of this happening - we went last weekend as friends invited us.

Basically there have been so many incidences of parents getting sloshed and not watching their kids - the pub sits on a busy road and has tall flower planters at the front so there’s no line of sight for drivers from to the front door until a foot from the road side.

The “family area” is around the side of the pub with no area to the main road - but the entrance to that and the main entrance (by main road) are right next to each other but on perpendicular walls.

I raised it before with staff and they pretty much just shrug and say it’s not their issue if there’s an accident outside the premises. I raised it after a two year old (ish) had wondered off and was actually outside AND past the end of the pub building - I’d been to get some cash and was just walking back and recognised her as being alone and so stopped.

There’s also been cases where kids have run onto / very close to the road.

Ultimately can a business refuse service to customers who are not supervising their kids, and should they?

Our friends are not on the same page as us with this and think the bar can do what they want in regards to serving alcohol to parents responsible for children.

Our friends are not on the same page as us with this and think the bar can do what they want in regards to serving alcohol to parents responsible for children.

If someone is obviously drunk, then the staff in the pub should not serve them. However, it's not up to them to work out whether or not the customers are 'responsible for children'. And to be honest, children shouldn't really be in pubs. I know some pubs need to be 'family friendly' in order to stay in business, but to me a 'family pub' is a bit like a vegetarian steakhouse. A contradiction in terms.

Legally the parent or carer of the child has a duty of care. If a child is injured because of the negligence of the parent the pub can not be held responsible. The only time the pub could be held responsible is if the child was injured due to an unsafe state of the premises under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 - however even with this the courts would take into account that the parents have a duty of care to supervise the child!

I think if a pub has good reason to think that continuing to serve someone will endanger their children who are present, there is a moral duty to not serve them, but that doesn't mean they are in any way responsible for looking after those children. That still rests with the parents. Nor does it mean the pub needs to find out before serving anyone whether they have children with them.

It's like if you see a child about to run into the road while their parent is negligently distracted, and you are able to stop them, you have a moral duty to stop them, but that doesn't mean you're responsible for them, nor does it make the parent any less responsible.

The parents are ultimately fully responsible for looking after their children. The pub's moral duty goes no further than to ensure they don't knowingly enable child neglect.